Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held near Lucca, Italy, Aug.-Sept. 1992, to consider theoretical and experimental aspects of ultrashort processes in condensed matter. One major subgroup of topics involves the ultrashort dynamics of excitations of various particles produced through

The Advanced Study Institute (AS ) considered a number offacets of the very rapidly advancing field of theoretical and experimental aspects of ultrashort processes in condensed matter. Common threads exist between a series of example cases. One major subgroup of topics involves the ultrashort dynamics of excitations of various "particles" produced through the interactions of condensed matter with ultrashort duration laser light. Examples ofthe excitations include electronic and hole carriers, electron-hole plasma, phonons, vibrons and rotons, two phonon states, and excitons. Experimentation...